Dragonic Burst

[Kyrielle's POV]

.....

"-ielle!"

How annoying... Don't you see that I'm trying to sleep here?

"Kyrielle! Don't sleep!"

Wait... That voice is...?

"Kyrielle wake up! You still have to find your sister!"

That's....

"...Dad?..."

What happened to Marielle?

.....

_________

I forced myself to open my eyes once again expecting to see dad in the afterlife. But who I saw instead was the automaton lady, Dao, healing me with the miracle imbedded into her hand.

"(Thank god you are alive! You had me worried when you weren't responding to me!)"

Golden lights shone from the crests ingrained on her palm, and after the miracle was casted, many of my wounds was closed up....

"(Thank... you...)"

"(Here I'll help you up! I'll get you to safety!)"

"(No... The bat woman...!)"

"(The bat woman? You mean the Vampire Lord, Gemory? Did you killed her?)"

So she was a vampire lord huh?... No wonder....

"(She's by the South... I want to make sure that she is dead....)"

"(Come on, you are already too injured!)"

"(I must.... Make sure....)"

"(....Fine.... Let's go!)"

With Dao supporting me, we walked to the south side of the city where rubbles of my explosion remains.

On the fountain, the badly injured woman lies there without an arm because it was blown entirely by me.

It seems that her injuries are too light for someone who was directly hit with a Forbidden Sun. Her healing factor must have healed a lot of her damage.

"(She isn't.... dead yet.)"

I extended my arm and prepared a Mana Bullet.... Finally taking notice of me, the woman opened her eyes.

"(Please don't... kill me...!)" With a voice of struggling with pain just like me, she begged me for mercy.

"(!...)" Moments ago, I was just like her... desperately clinging onto life.... Unlike the five monsters, she is sentient! Killing her would be like killing a person.

"(Kyrie....)"

My left hand trembled a bit as I hesitate to release my control of the Mana Bullet.

Despite that she is the one who caused me my grave injuries.... I can't bring myself to kill her.

"(You are the one who got her.... it's your call if you'll kill her or not. It wouldn't change anything if she was alive or dead because the truce negotiation is still gonna happen.)"

"(...please...)"

I aimed my hand up to the sky...

'Phiuc!' Since I can't cancel my spells after casting them like Lynn can, I aimed my hand up and fired the spell to the sky instead.

"(....Get out of this city.)"

"(Thank...you...)"

We turned around and decided to head back to the government building. As we walked down the street...

"Boom!"

With her arm, Dao pushes me aside. Immediately after, a swarm of bats flew past right on the place that I was just standing on.

Immediately as I dropped to the ground, I turned around and fired at her in just a split second.

'Thud!'

Mana Ball!

'Bang!' 'Crack!'

I shot it at her face, and the wind ball blows up upon hitting her head. I could hear sounds of her bones breaking when hit by my magic.

"Urgh!!!..."

"(Mother fucking back stabber!)"

"Grk...." Even with that attack, she still raised her arm again to try to do something. I don't intend to let her.

Mana Bullet!

'Phiuc!' I shot the second Mana Bullet at her head this time, blowing a hole right between her forehead. Her arm drops down, and her body finally lose any movement whatsoever.

Blood splatters everywhere as the Mana Bullet punched through her skull. Blood flowed out of the hole on her forehead as if a hole in a water tank.

Immediately when she died, the bats that were still floating around the sky above us started to disperse, flying away to all direction.

Somehow despite the fact that I just killed someone for real... I don't feel guilty. Is it because she's a demon?...

"(Urgh...)"

I looked back at Dao who lied on the ground next to me. Her wooden arm was torn off from being caught by the bat swarm, and she gripped her severed arm with her other hand. Although she has a wooden mask for a face, I could tell that she's in pain by just looking at her body language.

"(Dao!...)"

"(Relax, I'm an automata remember? I can't bleed nor feel pain, unlike you.)"

"(Liar... You were groaning in pain just now.... I'm sorry, I should've killed that bastard....)"

"(...It's fine. Now, let's get up and move you to the safety facility! I have to return to the battlefield soon since I'm one of the only person capable of healing.)" She said as she stood up, and helped me up with her still functioning hand.

"(Thank you...)"

...I was too naive. I had trusted in an enemy soldier who murdered (almost) all the mages that I taught.... I was naive to think that she's friendly, and it almost killed us.

I swear on my life..... that I'll never trust scumbags.... like them again!

But back then.... Why was I.... so excited when I was about to.... die back then?...

Shit... My mind is... Getting slower again....

"(Hang on, we are almost at the Government Building, Kyrielle!)"

"(So...rry...Dao...)"

'Thud!' My leg loses strength and I dropped to the floor once again, face first.

"(Kyrielle?! Kyrielle!)"

So tired.... So dizzy.... want to.... Take a nap....

.....

_________________

[Lynn's POV]

(4 month and 29 days after Klada Disaster)

(The next morning...)

"(Lynn-dono!)"

When I was busy eating my breakfast early in the morning, the Elite Royal Guard came looking for me again.

"(What is it?)" I asked out in annoyance.

"(It's about the city....)"

"(The city!... Tell me what happened.)"

"(The enemy army had laid siege to the city. As the main army was defending the front gate of the city, the enemy general made her way into the city from the sky and ambushed our mages from there.)"

"(Isn't that extremely risky for Gemory? And she did it alone?)"

"(Yes, but it fulfilled her objective of destroying the mage squad present in the city.)"

"(The Mage squad....)"

"(They suffered heavy injuries. Half of the mages didn't make it.)" My heart sinks upon hearing his words.

"(I see... What about...)"

"(Lady Kyrielle took some incredibly serious damage... but she killed the Below-Saint ranked enemy general.)"

"(That girl has a Healing Factor, thank goodness she's fine...)"

"(While I couldn't believe it at first, it seems that Lady Kyrielle single handedly defeated the enemy general and her guards in a direct confrontation, a feat only another person with a threat that is Below-Saint Rank is capable of.)"

"(She's my apprentice you know? I taught her well.)"

"(Yes, Lady Lynn....)"

"(Thanks for the good news, you may go now.)"

"(Very well, my lady. But do you mind if I asked you a... personal question?)"

"(Go ahead.)"

"(What if Lady Kyrielle died in that fight?)"

"(....Then I'll let the ministers know what it means to anger the Magic Pioneer, and put a stop to this war... with my magic.)"

"(I see.... Enjoy your breakfast.)"

The guard walked back the way he came, and I continued with my breakfast. As I ate, my mind raced with thoughts.

Thank god that Kyrie didn't die!... I'll really have to do something to her as an apology for her. Hmm... Maybe she'd like jewelries? She's a girl after all.

I definitely should head to the market and buy one after the negotiations.

________________

(2 hours later...)

"(You are here, Lady Lynn.)"

Dressed in a long black dress and make up, I stood in front of the meeting room inside the castle. Jern stood in front of the gate, a few soldiers are standing guard at the hallway as well.

More importantly, soldiers with different uniforms is standing guard outside the hallway as well. They are the soldiers of the Eastern side.

"(I'm here... Are the ministers here yet?)"

"(Yes, they are already inside the room. We will go according the plan.)"

"(Then where is Princess Asmedea?)"

"(Her Highness will be here soon, be patient.)"

"(Alright.)"

'The plan' that we discussed back inside the carriage was about what we will discuss and about how we will go about it. Now is a great time to review my mental notes as I waited.

After a while the king showed up. Escorted by a few proud knights, she walked down the hallway towards the meeting room. Jern and I greeted her after she arrived.

"(Your Highness.)" (2x)

"(Raise your head. Let's go, everyone.)"

"(Yes.)" (2x)

'Cha chank!' We opened the giant wooden door that led into the meeting room.

Inside, a giant round table of about 10 meters in diameter is in the middle of the room. And besides the round table is fancy chairs for people to sit on.

The seat farthest away is none other than the King's chair, and it has better decorations. My seat is directly next to the king.

20 seats lined up around the round table. 10 ministers, and 10 nobleman of the monarch's party. Almost everyone is at their seat already.

Everyone looked surprised when they saw Asmedea walking in instead of the king. It was actually kind of funny to see their shocked face, but I maintained a poker face. I bet Asmedea is laughing inside her head as well.

"(...let's go.)" But she commanded us with a voice of calmness, like a king should.

We walked around the round table and finally, we took our seat. Jern and the royal guards stood directly behind the seat of Asmedea, while I sat down on the chair next to her.

"(Good morning to everyone present here, I am Princess Asmedea. Thank you for coming to this negotiation. Now, I trust that many of you will have a lot of questions regarding about the king... So, before we start, anyone who needs answers can ask right now.)"

"(You are the princess, does that mean you are Asmodeus's daughter? Where is the king?)"

"(How rude! I am the king!)"

"(....what?)"

I saw a smirk on her face before she calmed down again.

"(I am a shape shifter slime, remember? I just like this appearance, and changed my name to suit it.)"

"(I can't believe that someone like you is the monarch of this country...)"

"(Do you have an opinion, Prime Minister Gerhard? Isn't freedom the main objective of your little uprising? So why can't I freely change my appearance?)"

"(...I have nothing to say to you.)"

"(Good.)"

...How scary! Even as a side character here I can still feel the tension between these two leaders!

The Prime Minister's skin looks awfully pale, and whenever he talks I could see sharp fangs protruding out of his mouth.... He must be a vampire.

"(Does anyone else have got any questions? If not, we will begin the negotiation now. As the party that invited all of the ministers on this ceremony, I think it should be fair for us to speak first. Go ahead, Jern.)"

"(Thank you my Lord, I'll just cut to the chase then. Both of our party, the East and the West should already know that if this war continues any further, it will be damaging to our country's prosperity.

It should be our top priority to make peace with each other, so that our ountry can thrive again. The fact that the ministry responded to our sudden invitation for a truce negotiation would suggest that all of us wants the same thing, isn't it right?

So for starters, this war was caused by the controversies regarding the magical incident on the sky at Creimland. To end this pointless war we must first overcome it. Our solution for that would be the help of Lynn, the Magic God.)"

"(The Magic God?!...)" (?x)

It seems that the people here are surprised to learn of my identity... Regardless though, I still stood up from my place and speak like we all planned.

"(...I am Lynn Howard, the Magic God who defeated Baal, the Supreme Demon King. I will personally see to Creimland myself, and help solve the issue without any help from the kingdom of Monproximus.)"

"(I see... But what are you doing here, Lynn Howard? Why are you on this continent right now?)" The Prime Minister was the one to ask me.

"(I'm here because I want to travel through this country, and I have someone who I need to bring back to Centralia.... A little girl. With the war going on, I can't exactly just waltz right past a battlefield with her. I sure hope that you of all people will all end this pointless war soon.)"

"(Very well, I'll listen to the request of the Magic God in return for you bringing peace and prosperity to our land back during the Great War...)"

"(Thank you.)" I said as I sat back down.

"(Thank you, Lady Lynn. So, about the rest of the negotiation. The paper work placed on the table is all of our conditions for ending the war. Everyone please take a read.)"

I grabbed the paper on my seat and looked at it.

____________

Conditions for truce on the East West War.

1. Military control be returned to the monarch

2. Soldiers who defected to the monarch's side be exempted from prosecution

3. The Prime Minister will still hold true to whatever rules that is agreed upon even before the election'

_____________

"(That will be the condition for ending the war on our side. Now, we would like to hear the conditions on the Ministers side, so if anyone would like to talk, you can go right ahead.)"

The Prime Minister stood up from his place as if he was waiting for this chance since the start.

"(We have no condition for ending the war, and we would be very glad to stop this pointless fighting as well in this very instant.... Or that is what we would like to say. There is just a condition we want the monarch to fulfill.)"

"(Which is?)"

"(To reform the country from our Constitutional Monarchy system, into two new states.)"

"(What?...)" "(Dividing the country?)" "(Is he for real?)"

"(After the two states are established as independent states, together as the East and the West we can form an Alliance together creating a new country.

By splitting the country into two new states and forming an alliance, we can lead our very own states according to the way we like it. There will be less conflict as well.

The monarch, Princess Asmedea would retain whatever military power that he or she already have, while we of the ministry would retain our own end of the military power.)"

People from the monarchy started to discuss amomgst themselves about this.

"(...Jern, what do you think?)" Asmedea asked for the opinion of her advisor.

"(....This is an enormous change that will be done to the country... it may take a way longer time to discuss and come to an agreement. But personally, I don't think this is a bad suggestion at all.)"

"(I see... What about you, Lynn?)"

"(I am not familiar with economics or the leading of a country so my opinion might be biased, but if two sides can come to an alliance on their own terms then it'd be the best for both worlds.)"

"(I see....)"

______________

After about an hour of discussion with the Ministers, Asmedea came to a conclusion.

"(So what do the West say about this suggestion?)"

"(We will consider it for longer, and continue this negotiation tomorrow. For now, we will declare the Truce for the war, and end this pointless bloodshed.)"

No one objected her.

"(With 20 witnesses including me the Prime Minister, the East West War will officially be stopped by an indefinite truce for now. Generals of both sides should order their troops to stop attacking their enemies immediately after this.)"

"(Agreed. Now, this negotiation is dismissed. See you all here again tomorrow.)"

I got up from my seat, and talked to Asmedea again.

"(So Princess Asmedea, do I have any more tasks here?)"

"(I'd want to let you leave soon to get to your little apprentice but... Can you stay here to act as the middle man for a while? I kind of need you to be here for the negotiations to tip in our favour...)"

"(I see... If that is the case, can I bring my apprentice here as well? If the negotiations is to take a long time, it'd be more efficient for her to come here.)"

"(Suit your wishes, Lynn. The least I could do for your kindness is to repay you and your companion with hospility.)"

"(Thank you, your majesty. I'll take my leave for now then.)"

I left the meeting room by myself and headed back to my room. Walking in the hallway, my high heels made loud footsteps each time I stepped on the marble floor of the castle.

"Sigh...." Is it really a good choice for me to attend this negotiation?... I thought I was done with these things after the Great War. It's tiring to negotiate for days on end sometimes....

I suppose I'll just go and relax inside my own room then, after I get changed from this itchy dress of course.

_________________

[Kyrielle's POV]

(1 day later...)

.....

What seperates a wild, monster dragon from a true dragon?...

What does it even mean to be a true dragon?

The answer to those two questions is...

"...Dragonic Burst... Zzz.... Huh?!"

'Rustle!...' I jumped up from my sleep. A sore pain immediately hits my leg upon doing so.

"Ouch ouch...." My leg and my head still hurts a lot even after having healing magic casted on me....

"Hmm...?" My hair was let loose, and bandages are wrapped around on my head.... did one of the automata healers treat my wounds?

But more importantly, where am I now? Checking around the place I was sleeping in, I found myself inside what appears to be a military tent.

A familiar ray of blueish light shone through the entrance's canvas and illuminated the tent... It is night right now, and the moon light is leaking into the tent. It's a very common sight for me, but even still, it's beautiful regardless.

"Hmm..." Why am I here? What happened to me?... What did I even do before this?...

...That's right, after I killed that Arch Demon, Gemory of the Blood, I walked together with Dao to get to the Government Building.... And I fainted from exhaustion I think.

"Well... Whatever." At least I'm healed, warm, and still alive.

I got up from this bed and tried to stood up.... It's the greatest mistake I have ever made in my life.

"Ouch ouch ouch!" My leg really hurts! I can't believe that I'm still in so much pain even after having healing miracle casted on me!...

How did I ignore this much pain in the middle of the fight anyway? It must've been adrenaline....

Wearing the slippers beside the bed, I limped up from the bed, and to the table inside the tent. On top of it is a pot of water, and I chugged down a good amount of it because I'm dehydrated.

Finally, I limped out of the tent's curtains, towards the outside. Crickets chirping, the midnight wind gently blew the trees and plants aprund making rustling noises, and the moon illuminated the area around me.

A pile of water on the floor reflected the starry night sky, and on top of it all is a canvas of stars and the Milky Way Galazy.... This isn't the first time I have watched this scenery, but it is still really beautiful no matter how many times I have watched it.

Well, I got distracted. It seems that I am now at the military barrack right next to the main gate of the city, normally a military camp used by soldiers in the city.

Everyone else is sleeping, only a few guards is watching on top of the city walls. It seems that during the time I was out cold, the siege of this city by the enemy soldiers were prevented.

The irony is that there are still more guards here in the city now than during when that vampire attacked... I could've used one or two helping hands you know?

Either way, my objective of wandering out here isn't just to see where I was.... I also want to test out my new ability.

First, I activated my Mana Shield... And then in a silent whisper...

"Dragonic Burst... Grk!" Immediately as I said the word, my heart starts pumping really fast, giving me a slight uncomfortable chest pain.

Grasping my heart, I kneeled down on the floor... after about a few seconds of waiting, the pain eventually went away.

"Phew... Hmm?" From the reflection on the water puddle I could see that my eyes is now shining gold, and my iris turned into thin vertical lines like a serpent's. My eyes has turned into a dragon's!

"Wahaha, that's cool!" Besides the gorgeous looking golden eyes, an ominous red magical aura covered my entire body....

I feel heat surging through all my limbs, and my reflexes feel much much faster than before. My eyes became a lot more sharper, I could even see in extreme details of a house about 200 meters away...

Besides my reflexes and my eyesight being enhanced, I felt extremely powerful. I mean physically powerful, it feels like my muscles are boosted by steroids or something... I wanna try it out!

"Hmm, that tree would be a good dummy... Hah!"

'Thump!'

"Wow!" My punch just hit like a sledgehammer!

A fist mark was left on the tree trunk, my punch was so powerful that it shaked the entire tree.... And that was when my punch was relatively low effort.... This could actually become my Trump Card against my enemies.

With this broken ability, even those Vampire Beasts that ambushed me would now have trouble fighting me.... Also, maybe I should keep a melee weapon to compliment my increased physical strength as well.

"So this is Dragonic Burst huh?..."

But even just using it for one minute, I could ready find the drawback to this powerful Trump Card. With each second, more and more of my Reserved Mana is drained to boost my power.

Dragonic Burst is literally what it means, to generate a burst of power. Using this in a fight would likely exhaust me so fast that I can only keep up for about 10 minutes before I collapse...

But for now, I should close it.

I focused my mind on removing the Red Aura that's coating my body, and this disabled the effect.

"Phew..."

Let's go back to sleep then.

I headed back to my tent and then opened the curtain...

I didn't notice it when I woke up, but when I looked at the table besides the bed I saw two blue ribbons similar to the ones that was also gifted to me in the past by Gondur.

"Hmm..." Is this a gift from Dao?

Come to think of it, my hair ribbons were definitely destroyed when I fought those Vampire Beasts! No one except Dao would give me hair ties like this anyway.... I should definitely go and thank her tomorrow for saving me back then.

'Thump.' I jumped on the comfortable bed and closed my eyes.

(Chapter end)